Free Press Staff Writer

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Two more people have died in Michigan as part of a national fungal meningitis outbreak, bringing the total number of statewide deaths to 10, the Michigan Department of Community Health reported this week.

The latest deaths were of two Livingston County women, ages 50 and 75.

Nearly 500 people nationwide – 164 just in Michigan -- have been sickened over the past several weeks by tainted steroid injections prepared by the Massachusetts-based New England Compounding Center.

According to the Michigan Department of Community Health, the state has had 64 cases of meningitis, eight joint infections, a stroke and 91 cases of epidural abscesses, or infections at epidural injection sites.

“I think the important thing right now is the fact that we are no longer seeing as many meningitis cases, we’re just watching the epidural abscess cases climb,” Angela Minicuci, public information officer for the Michigan Department of Community Health, said Wednesday night.

While the increase is concerning, Minicuci noted that no deaths have been attributed to epidural abscesses.

The other people who have died in Michigan include a 88-year-old Ingham County woman, an 81-year-old Charlevoix County woman, a 64-year-old Wayne County woman, a 79-year-old Livingston County woman, a 62-year-old Washtenaw County man, a 56-year-old Genesee County woman, a 67-year-old Livingston County woman and a 78-year-old Washtenaw County woman.

Three Michigan residents who were treated in Indiana have also died. Their deaths are being figured in Indiana’s case count.

On Friday, state health officials reported that they had granted emergency certificates of need to expand the capacity of operating rooms and employ a mobile MRI service at St. Joseph Mercy Ann Arbor. The hospital is treating more people related to the outbreak than any other facility nationally.

Officials learned in early October that four clinics in Michigan received contaminated steroid injections from the compounding center. Patients were notified and the product recalled.

A number of lawsuits have been filed nationally in connection with the outbreak. Locally, the compounding center is named in 20 lawsuits filed recently in federal court.